It is time to celebrate achievements of amazing Atlas Corps Alumni who are making inspiring impacts against COVID-19. Today we want to talk with our Alumna Trina (Class 15, India), about her efforts to support those in need during the pandemic.
Trina is a Co-Founder of Kranti, an anti-trafficking, women’s rights NGO in Mumbai. Kranti provides shelter, education, and opportunities to disadvantaged women, many being under-age girls from Mumbai’s red-light areas. Most recently, Trina is working to provide those that Kranti serves with essentials for their daily life.
Read below about how Trina is contributing to the support of this often-overlooked population, and how we can all work together and rise above the challenges of today. Thank you so much for everything that you do! We wish you the best with this inspiring work Trina!
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Name: Trina Talukdar
Home Country: India Current Organization: Kranti Role at current organization: Co-Founder |
Please share with us what you and your organization are doing to support people amidst COVID-19?
In the conversations about providing welfare to construction workers, labourers, and other daily wage workers, there are some groups that are invisible, like sex workers. There are many patients and families who have been kicked out of hospitals overnight to make space for Corona virus infected patients. So, at Kranti, we are raising funds to provide food and healthcare to these invisible groups. Now we are giving freshly cooked meals to over 100 people everyday.
We are doing this creatively, where the girls supported by Kranti are conducting Yoga, Meditation, Zumba and other classes online, and people are donating to attend these classes. We use their donation to provide relief to underserved communities. This was we are working towards the wellbeing of our donors and the communities we work with.
It is hard to volunteer in distributing the food or anything, because of the lockdown. We had to get police permission to be able to do this. But people can donate to our campaign on Facebook.
Do you have anything you would like to say to everybody about how we can all do our part in this pandemic?
While civil society can do our part, there are some things only the government can do. For example, a lot of the sex workers we are working with are HIV+, have Tuberculosis. They depend on the public healthcare system for ART and other medication. But they cannot get any healthcare right now. This is not something civil society can solve. So, while our role as development professionals is to serve the invisible unserved communities, it is everyone’s role to continuously hold the government accountable for ensuring public systems run to serve everyone.
Support Atlas Corps Fellows during COVID-19
Help us to support Atlas Corps Fellows who cannot return home because of the COVID-19 lockdown. These Fellows face unique, unbudgeted, and completely unexpected expenses. Donations of ANY size make a big difference!
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